Staff photo / David Skolnick Youngstown Mayor Derrick McDowell gives a State of the City address to the Rotary Club of Youngstown on Wednesday afternoon. He talked about his first two months in office.

YOUNGSTOWN — Derrick McDowell said his first two months as Youngstown mayor has been filled with “wonderful beginnings.”

During a State of the City address Wednesday, McDowell told the Rotary Club of Youngstown that his focus is on economic development, education, safety forces, parks and infrastructure.

Regarding Youngstown, McDowell said: “We might be a bit bruised. We’re certainly embattled by things when it comes to what we know about this city. But I will tell you that this city, under my term and my tenure, will live up to what it said, and if you’re going to, in this city, claim that Youngstown invented grit, it is now time to call on that grittiness and to get at it.”

McDowell, who beat former two-term incumbent Jamael Tito Brown, said he is going to do things differently as mayor.

McDowell said he has tasked DeMaine Kitchen, the new community planning and economic development director, “with the responsibility of delivering on projects because I’ve made promises to my community. These promises can only be kept with one thing, quite frankly, and that’s money.”

Part of that is focusing on the development of downtown by making sure it has reliable steam heat, which has been an ongoing issue with the beleaguered SOBE Thermal Energy LLC. SOBE is supposed to provide heat to much of downtown, but has repeatedly failed.

“We’ve got a problem that I won’t ignore,” McDowell said.

While the mayor has no control over the city’s education system, McDowell said it is one of his main priorities.

“If we want people to live here, remain here, return here, education has to be at the forefront of that,” said McDowell, whose wife has been an educator for 20 years.

McDowell said fire Chief Courtney Kelly is concentrating on the city’s ambulance contract and improving the department’s morale.

McDowell said firefighters say morale has greatly improved.

“They call it night and day already,” he said.

Police Chief Sharon Cole is assigning “completely less mandated overtime” for officers, McDowell said.

The police department had 15 officers make more than $50,000 each in overtime in 2025 with a detective sergeant getting $131,775. Overall, $3.25 million in overtime was paid last year to city police officers.

McDowell said he wants the city’s parks system to be recognized on the state level for its excellence.

Also, he said: “Our failing infrastructure continues to plague us. I’ve only been in office for 60 days, but we’re already looking at how to address taking care of infrastructure.”

McDowell said he visited Washington, D.C. “to connect with mayors who have things that I want from their community. In this tenure, this term, we don’t just take trips to be taking trips. We take trips because we (want) something that someone else has that we need for the city of Youngstown.”